Thomas W. Lawson (ship)

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The Thomas W. Lawson was a seven-masted, steel-hulled schooner originally planned for the Pacific trade, but then used primarily to haul coal and oil along the East Coast of the United States. Built in 1902, the ship holds the distinction of being the largest schooner and the largest pure sailing ship (without an auxiliary engine) ever built. As for pure sailing ships, she was followed by the famous German full-rigged five-masted ship Preussen (Prussia) of the Flying P-Liner fleet, launched in the same year.

Larger sailing ships, but with an auxiliary engine for propulsion, were the French and German five-masted barques France II  (1911) and R. C. Rickmers  (1906) respectively.

The Thomas W. Lawson was destroyed near the Scilly Isles Hellweather's Reef, in a storm on December 14, 1907, killing all but two of her 18 crew including the pilot who was already aboard ship.

[edit] Development and construction

Designed by naval architect Bowdoin B. Crowninshield (famous for his fast yachts) for Captain John G. Crowley of the Coastwise Transportation Company of Boston, Massachusetts, the construction of the Thomas W. Lawson was contracted to the Fore River Ship and Engine Company on June 25, 1901. At a cost of approximately $250,000, the Thomas W. Lawson holds the record of being the only seven-masted schooner, the only seven-masted sailing ship in modern time (see Zheng He's Treasure Ships), the largest schooner, and the largest pure sailing ship ever built. Her design and purpose was an ultimately unsuccessful bid to keep sailing ships competitive with the steam ships that were becoming more common for freight transport purposes. In fact the underwater hull was too large and the sail area too small for good sailing properties, the reduced load capacity from 11,000 to 7,400 (see below) made a working to capacity impossible, and cut the expected profits.

Launched on July 10, 1902, the Thomas W. Lawson was 395 feet (120.4 m) in length (lod = length on deck), contained seven masts of equal length (193 feet (58.8 m)) from which 25 sails (7 gaff sails, 7 gaff topsails, 6 staysails and 5 jib sails encompassing 43,000 square feet (4,000 m²)) of canvas would power her. Originally painted white the ship's hull appeared in black later on. The naming of her masts was always a subject for some discussion (see external link "The Masts of the Thomas W. Lawson"). In the original sail plan and during construction named (fore to aft): 'no. 1 to no. 7', no. 7 being replaced by "spanker mast" later on. The names of the masts changed then to: 'fore, main, mizzen, spanker, jigger, driver, and pusher' at launch and to: 'forecastle, fore, main, mizzen, jigger, and spanker' after launch. Later on a lot of different naming systems were formed, e.g. 'fore, main, mizzen, rusher, driver, jigger, and spanker' or 'fore, main, mizzen, no. 4, no. 5, no. 6, and no. 7', the naming preferred by the crew. Even a naming after the days of the week was discussed.

The ship consisted of a steel hull with a double cellular bottom 4 feet deep and used 1,000 tons of water ballast. She displaced 5,218 gross tons of water, could carry nearly 11,000 tons of coal, and carried a crew of 17 (18) including captain, engineer, two helmsmen, and steward. Due to the low depth of the eastern ports except Newport News, VA, she could not enter them with her maximum load. As a result, she carried the reduced capacity of 7,400 tons. She had three decks and a large superstructure on the poop deck including the captain's cabin and the rudder house, and two deckhouses on the main deck at masts no. 5 and 6. Two huge steam winches were built in under the forecastle and behind mast no. 6. on the main deck. Smaller winches were installed beside each mast.

[edit] Namesake

The ship was named for Thomas W. Lawson, a Boston millionaire, stock-broker, and President of the Boston Bay State Gas Co at that time.

[edit] Service

Often criticized by marine writers (and some seamen) and considered difficult to maneuver and sluggish (relations to a "bath tub" and a "beached whale" were made), the Thomas W. Lawson proved problematic in the ports she was intended to operate in due to the amount of water she displaced. She tended to yaw and needed a stormy wind to be held on course. Originally built for the Pacific trade, the schooner was used as collier (coal carrier) along the American East Coast. A year later in 1903, Crowley withdrew her from the coal trade. He had the topmasts, gaff booms and all other wooden spars removed and had chartered her out as a sea-going barge for the transportation of case oil - the ship was towed all the time. In 1906, she was retrofitted at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company for use as a bulk oil carrier (sailing tanker) using the lower steel masts to vent the holds (tanks) from oil gases. Her capacity was 60,000 barrels. Under charter to Sun Oil Company, her purpose shifted from hauling coal to transporting bulk oil from Texas to the eastern seaboard. She was the world first pure sailing tanker.

[edit] Wreck

In 1907, the Thomas W. Lawson was under charter to the Anglo-American Oil Company (part of Standard Oil) and set sail on November 27 from Philadelphia to London with 58,000 barrels of paraffin oil. The transatlantic journey was quite horrible in extremely stormy weather with the loss of sails, all lifeboats, and the breach of hatch no. 6, causing the ship's pumps to clog due to a mixture of intruding seawater and the engine's coal in the ship's hold. On December 13, the ship was caught in another winter gale off the west coast of the Scilly Isles near the "Hellweather's Reef". After having passed the Bishop Rock lighthouse her captain decided to try to anchor to weather up the gale refusing several requests of the St Agnes lifeboat crew to abandon the ship. But during the night the storm increased, her port anchor chain broke, and the pounding schooner was smashed starboardside on against the rocks by tremendously heavy seas. All seven masts broke off and fell into the sea with all seamen who had climbed up the rigging for safety on their captain's command. The stern section broke apart behind mast no. 6, the ship capsized and sunk. In the morning light the ship's upturned keel could be seen near the reef from which the wreck slid off into deeper water later on. 16 of the 18 crewmen and the Scillonian pilot Wm. "Cook" Hicks who was already on board were lost, captain George W. Dow and engineer Edward Rowe from Boston being the only survivors. Despite wearing their lifebelts, the seamen died of the thick oil layer, the smashing seas, and the schooner's rigging that had drowned so many of the crew.

The broken up and scattered wreck lies 56 ft deep on position 49 53' 38" N (lat.) and 6 22' 55" W (long.) and can be visited by scuba divers under calm weather conditions.

[edit] References

• Kates, Minor W., History of the Sun Marine Department. Retrieved from http://www.fleetsheet.com/lawson.htm on August 2, 2006.
• Sarcone, Anthony F. and Lawrence S. Rines, A History of Shipbuilding at Fore River. Published 1975. Retrieved from http://ci.quincy.ma.us/tcpl/shipbuildingheritage/history/history.htm on August 2, 2006.

[edit] Further reading

• Hall, Thomas The T.W. Lawson: The Fate of the World's Only Seven-Masted Schooner. The History Press (Charleston, SC) 2006.
• Hornsby, Thomas, The Last Voyage of the Thomas W. Lawson. Publ. in the 'Nautical Research Journal' Vol. 5 (1959), pp. 53-59, 61, illust.
• Hall, Thomas, The T. W. Lawson - The fate of the world's only seven-masted schooner. Scituate (2005).
• The Western Weekly News: DISASTER AT SCILLY - American Sailing Ship Lost. Hugh Town, Scilly Isles, December 21, 1907
• Rodd, Peter, Wreck of Thomas W. Lawson. Publ. in The American Neptune Vol. 29, Salem (1969) pp. 133-138.
• Coughlin, W. P., The Last Voyage of the Thomas W. Lawson. (1964).

[edit] External links

• Enlarged photograph of the Thomas W. Lawson before starting her maiden voyage
• Characteristics of the Thomas W. Lawson on www.bruzelius.info
• The Masts of the Thomas W. Lawson
• The Glamorous Sixmasters - the large New England six-masted schooners including the Thomas W. Lawson
• Photograph taken during her maiden voyage
• Photograph of the Thomas W. Lawson ; lying deeply laden in the roads (of Boston harbor)
• Seven-masted schooner Thomas W. Lawson unladen in the roads of Boston harbor
• several (contemporary) reports on the catastrophe and the ship
• Painting of the Thomas W. Lawson by Ed Parker
• Nav Problem: Schooner Thomas W. Lawson
• Realistic oil painting of the Thomas W. Lawson  under full sail by Thomas H. Willis providing several detail enlargements of the painting
• Enlarged painting of the Thomas W. Lawson  by Thomas H. Willis
• Model and characteristics of the ship
• Photograph of the Thomas W. Lawson lying in ballast in the roadsde:Thomas W. Lawson

es:Thomas W. Lawson (barco) fr:Thomas W. Lawson (voilier)